


How Lance Got Promoted to Fighter-Class

by dagobletofiyah



Series: Platonic VLD Month 2017 [1]
Category: Voltron Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Platonic Relationships, Platonic VLD Month
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-09
Updated: 2017-10-09
Packaged: 2019-01-15 04:56:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12314181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dagobletofiyah/pseuds/dagobletofiyah
Summary: Platonic VLD Month Day One: Garrison DaysThanks to platonicvldmonth on tumblr for organizing this!I am not writing every day, because I'll be drawing some days instead.





	How Lance Got Promoted to Fighter-Class

Hunk groaned as Lance slipped out the door of their room. He just really, really wanted to spend the evening curled up in bed with the latest edition of _Gourmand Monthly_ , but Lance, being the annoying little quiznac that he was, was set on ruining Hunk’s prospects for a quiet evening.

At the Garrison, if your roommate snuck out and got into trouble, you were punished too. This was supposed to motivate the cadets to stay in their rooms, but Lance never was one to consider too seriously other people’s feelings, especially not Hunk’s, once he had learned that Hunk wasn’t inclined to take a bunch of stupid risks like he was. Hunk thought Lance could be exceedingly stupid, and that if he could just look at things seriously–and with a good deal more modesty–he might have made it to becoming a Fighter-Class pilot. But as it was, Lance was currently wandering the corridors of the Garrison after hours, and it was Hunk’s duty to bring him back to their room without anybody noticing either of them had ever left. With one last, longing glance the _Gourmand Monthly_ lying temptingly on his bedside table, Hunk snuck out the door, shutting it silently behind him.

Now that Hunk was outside his room, he didn’t really know where to start. Lance was nowhere to be seen. Luckily, their room keys were trackable, and Hunk, being an engineer, knew enough from his classes that he could hack into one of the control boxes located at the end of each wing of the Garrison and find Lance in a matter of minutes. Nervously glancing around him, Hunk began to move down the corridor, in the direction of one of said control boxes.

It didn’t take him long to locate Lance’s room key. Hunk breathed a sigh of relieve as he realized Lance was quite nearby, in the flight sim corridor. Only a moment later, Hunk realized that most unluckily, Lance wasn’t alone in the corridor. In fact, from the direction his and the accompanying Senior Officer’s dots were moving on the screen, it looked as though he was about to be caught.

Hunk swore under his breath. He had maybe 90 seconds at most to get to Lance if he was going to stop him from walking right into another meeting with Iverson. Abandoning all pretense of being careful, Hunk ran as fast as he could to the flight sim corridor.

“Lance!” Hunk scream-whispered, “What are you doing?”

Lance didn’t bother to keep his voice down. “Oh, hi Hu–”

“Lance.”

Lance turned around and gave Hunk finger guns. “Decided to join? Can’t resist a little adventure, signature McClain style?” He waggled his eyebrows and ginned.

“You’re about to walk right into–” Hunk groaned and put his face into his palm as a senior officer rounded the corner just in front of them.  
Lance, still with his back to the officer, was unaware for a moment that anything was wrong, and, as Hunk watched, frozen in horror, he continued to walk backwards, a couple more steps, until he bumped right into the officer.

“Wha–?” Lance looked up, eyes widening as he realized what had just happened. His face assumed the familiar resigned look it usually took on when he was caught for Doing Something Stupid, thought Hunk, as the Officer lead them towards Commander Iverson’s office.

They weren’t the only ones in trouble that evening, apparently. They were made to wait outside while Iverson finished up dealing with another cadet. From their position outside the door, they could hear raised voices coming from inside.

“It wasn’t a quiznacking ‘pilot error’ and you know it! What are you trying to hide from us?”

“Do not speak to me that way, cadet.”

“Admit you don’t know what happened!”

“This is your third warning for breaking into classified records–”

“You know as well as I do that it wasn’t Shiro–”

“–and as such, I have no choice but to expel you, Keith.”

There was a pause, and then, “Fine. See if I care. You’re a right quiznac, you know. I’ll figure out what happened, I’ll–”

The door suddenly banged open, causing Hunk and Lance to jump backward in fright.

A cadet—well, ex-cadet now, Hunk supposed—with black hair and a murderous look on his face stormed out. He didn’t so much as glance in their direction as he stomped off down the corridor.

Hunk peered nervously into the room. Iverson was sitting at his desk, his head in his hands. The Senior Officer who had found them cleared his throat nervously.

“Sir?” When Iverson didn’t look up, the Senior Officer licked his lips nervously but continued. “I found these cadets wandering the flight sim corridor after hours, Sir.”

They all waited apprehensively as Iverson slowly pulled his head off his hands and looked up at them. “Come in, then,” he said wearily.

* * *

Hunk couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Neither, it seemed, could Lance.

“Wait, so…I’m promoted?” He said incredulously. “To fighter class? I’m not in trouble?”

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” was Iverson’s repsonse. “The best pilot in your year was just expelled, and you are next in line to be brought up from Cargo Pilot Class.”

Hunk kind of wished Lance would still be punished for sneaking out, even if it meant he would be punished as well. He didn’t think the way this was turning out was teaching Lance a very good lesson, and he highly doubted Lance wouldn’t do it again. Out of all the cadets at the garrison, how did Hunk manage to get Lance for a roommate? Lance was great, thought Hunk, but he could be a lot to handle, and he didn’t always learn from his mistakes. Now, he wouldn’t be able to escape Lance during lessons, since they would both be training with the Fighter-Class cadets in flight sims. He sighed. This was going to be a long year.

* * *

Keith slowed the hover bike only once he was so far into the desert he couldn’t even remember which direction the Garrison was. He followed some kind of instinctual pull that lead him through the barren canyons. Pulling up alongside an outcropping of rock, he turned his face toward the night sky. Something had happened to Shiro up there. Whatever it was, the mission didn’t fail becauase of a bloody ‘pilot error,’ as the Garrison claimed. The ship was found intact, the crew simply missing. And besides, Shiro was much too good a pilot.

What would Shiro say now that Keith was expelled?

Keith and Shiro had been top of their respective classes, and had competed for Garrison records. No doubt if Shiro could see him right now he would shake his head and smile sadly in disappointment. Shiro had always told Keith he had the potential to be the greatest pilot ever to graduate from the Garrison.

Keith bit his lip and closed his eyes. Even in the desert, where no one could see him, he was desperately fighting back tears. He was too used to bottling in his emotions.

When he opened his eyes again, he realized something about the wall of rock he was standing next to. There was a cavern, hidden from the main part of the canyon, and it seemed to be calling to him, tugging somehow at his mind. Cautiously, Keith got off the bike and crept into the opening. The walls of the cavern were covered with markings of some kind. Keith ran his fingers over them, trying to work out what they meant. He had never seen anything like them before.

He ended up staying in the cavern overnight. Exhausted and with nowhere else to go, he curled up against the rock wall and dozed off. He left early the next morning, but he would return to the cavern almost daily to run his finger over the symbols and muse over what they meant. He was inexplicably drawn to the spot, and it provided a welcome distraction from his own thoughts.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Ahh…I didn’t know how to end this. Sorry it kind of leaves off at a weird point. Also, it was really weird writing this then going back and trying to replace all the swear words with ‘quiznac.’ It just doesn’t sound natural in some instances ;)
> 
> I'd love your feedback!


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